Peter Parkes is reporting on big news on the availability of the new 3 Skypephone in the Skype blog.

While in the United Kingdom recently, I not only got to meet with Peter, but also tried out the earlier version of the an earlier version of the 3 Skypephone.

Sadly, this phone is not available in the United States. But I got a look at what may be coming someday.

My Skype address book popped right up after I registered the phone. So I decided to give it a spin.

I called Chris, a friend back in Chicago, via Skype on the phone. The sound quality was great--plus the call was free.

I did run into a voice connection problem in a rural area outside the old Roman town of Bath.

Still, I was able to do a Skype chat with a friend in Tucson while on the tour bus outside Bath en route to Stonehenge. (Hope you enjoy my photos.)

I told my friend Ted that I couldn't get through on voice. I joked that the Roman cell reception was poor.

I told Ted the issue was there was no "roamin' (Roman) plan." (Nonetheless, Bath was a planned Roman city, roaming plans or not.)

Ted suggested that the Romans didn't have GSM, but were strictly analog.

I learned later that Ted wasn't far off. A manager in a 3 store in a shopping mall in Liverpool, not far from the Albert Dock, told me that in some areas voice didn't work because of antiquated infrastructure. He wasn't talking about aqueducts, either.

Still, the Skype chat with my man in Arizona worked great.

In the blog, Peter asks: "How does the S2 compare to the original 3 Skypephone?

"New user interface -- even easier to use than the original 3 Skypephone, with a carousel interface which makes switching apps speedy. It preserves the integrated Skype phonebook, so your contacts' Skype names appear alongside their landline or mobile phone numbers."

The S2 also can take photos and can browse the Web.

Maybe someday, we'll be able to use this phone, or something like it, in the USA. Meanwhile, while UK residents can enjoy the 3, we are still on the "II" in the Stone(henge) Age and can only dream of the III.

An American in 3 SKypeland